Isabel dos Santos of Angola loses her appeal against a court decision to freeze her assets

In a case in London’s High Court on Monday, Isabel dos Santos, a billionaire from Angola, tried to overturn a decision that frozen up to 580 million pounds ($778 million) of her assets. She failed, though.

A company in Angola called Unitel is suing Dos Santos, who is Africa’s first female billionaire and whose father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, ruled Angola for 38 years until 2017.

Unitel was given a global freezing order over dos Santos’ assets in December. On Monday, the Court of Appeal did not agree with her appeal of that decision.

For years, people in Angola have said that Dos Santos is crooked. She says the claims are false and that she is the target of a political grudge that has been going on for a long time.

Unitel is suing her for loans it gave to a different Dutch company, Unitel International Holdings (UIH), in 2012 and 2013 while she was a director of Unitel. These loans were used to help UIH buy shares in telecoms companies.

The Court of Appeal said in its decision that Dos Santos owns and runs UIH.

Even though they have the same name, Unitel and UIH are not connected. In 2020, dos Santos quit as a member of Unitel.

Unitel’s lawyers told the High Court that the loans were not paid back and that around 300 million pounds is still owed.

Angola is accused of a “campaign of oppression” against dos Santos, who says that Unitel is to blame for UIH’s failure to repay the loans because it illegally took UIH’s assets.